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Live in-car footage set to take centre stage in revamped F1 app?

The official Formula 1 app is reportedly set to get an overhaul, with a new version of the app currently in beta testing.

Images have been circulating on social media with Dutch users testing the app. The new app appears to give users the ability to customise which of the 22 cars they wish to ride on-board with. The key word in the linked tweet is “all”. In previous iterations of Sky’s Race Control app, there was always the limitation of how many cars the user could choose from. That is about to change.

This is clearly a significant development as the F1 app has never featured live footage of any nature before, and is a major step in the right direction from Formula One Management (FOM). I assume the testing is in preparation for the 2017 season, but as of writing we do not know yet.

What we do know is that there has been a lot of advances in the way data is transferred by Tata Communications, which will open up avenues such as every on-board camera being open at one time, and available for the viewer to use. Ideally, FOM need to be looking at MotoGP’s Video Pass and beyond for what content they need to be delivering to the consumer.

Of course, there are further questions: will this come at a cost to the customer (almost certainly an increase for F1 Access) and will it be geo-blocked where rights restrictions are in place (UK with Sky for example). On the surface, this looks like a very promising development.

As ever, we await further information and I’ll update this post when we hear anything, but it looks like 2017 will see a significant change in this landscape.

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